05/29/2009, Anchored East of Cat Cay
Friday May 29, 2009. We are staged to leave at 3 or 4 or 5 (who knows) in the morning as this crossing is very long. The Gulf Stream crossing was a breeze, thanks to Mark's careful planning. I apologize as I have been remiss in writing here. I also apologize to those people in NH we didn't get to see. We had time to see family and then I spent several days wiped out, and then there was the yard and house and on it goes. Hopefully I will have more time to enjoy people when we return. We are having a wonderful time. Finally we have time to snorkel and relax and we even caught a NICE FISH. I am spending lots of time quilting and doing Sudoku, but I still struggle with reading for any extended time. I am looking forward to Dottie and Larry joining us, probably a week from today and then David and Lisa will join us on June 25th for the run to Bocas. I am excited about the gardening and the house. I have to find a way to keep the finca's goats out of the plants and garden. Also, it will be mango season when we arrive. Hopefully Currie will come down in July as she loves them. Lucas ran a half Marathon, I am impressed, I can't imagine 11 miles. Shari's graduation was great and she has Kira back. We saw Kim and Zac while in NH, they are moving again. All are doing well. The strangest visit started with a call to Currie as I hadn't heard from her in a while and she tells me that she and Dan were in Miami. Long story short, she and Dan and his sister, Meg and her husband Micheal came down to the harbor and we had a great afternoon people and boat watching and hanging out. I just couldn't believe we ended up in Miami at the same time. It was amazing. I Find sailing much more comfortable now and the only time I was at all frightened was when Mark jumped overboard in the middle to the Gulf of Mexico to cut a crab trap free from the prop. I know so much more about the boat and sailing I can't believe it. This is worth doing, worth all the five years of planning and whatever your dream, you should live it, even for a while, it is worth everything. I promise to write more blogs for everyone, especially our Sea Orphans. And yes Lucas, Mark does wear a sarong, it is much cooler and more comfortable. So does that make him Samoan Mark? Love to all.
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05/27/2009, Anchored in Honeymoon Harbor, Gun Cay
Tuesday, 26 May. Bright blue skies, sunshine, and faint wind. It is a gorgeous day. There are a couple of spots in the Bimini's that we want to visit before heading across the bank and wind for crossing will be best on Friday, so that works out well. There's 5-8 kts of wind from the SE so we will sail leisurely S and see where we feel like stopping. In fifty feet of water we can see the bottom clearly and the color is like a Bombay Sapphire bottle. We ghosted along at 2-3 kts, but the wind kept falling and moving S so finally we had 3 kts of wind right on the nose. Dropped sail and motored. The first spot we came to was Honeymoon Harbor - "only good in settled weather, but with a beautiful beach" OK, this is certainly settled weather. There was one other boat already in the harbor, but it was a power boat that was in close to the beach and didn't look like the type to spend the night, so we picked our way in and dropped the hook in a nice sandy spot, set it well, then bridled it and put out the kellet. I'm not sure the anchor will do much of anything except be there as insurance as we were firmly anchored by the 20# kellet which settled to the sand also. When I dove to check them (not really necessary as the water is so clear you can see everything from the surface), I also saw that the grass surrounding our patch of sand is actually about 2' higher than the sand forming a shelf the the anchor would catch on if it ever did drag. We will be all set even if we get a thunderstorm. I explored the area in dink, but no interesting coral, just sand, grass, and marl. even at the edges where the bottom rises to the surface it was marl instead of coral. The beach, however, was great - soft sugar white to pink - with gradual slope into the water. I am learning to read the colors - when you can see the sand underwater as still distinctly tan, there is only 1-2'; when the water starts to look pale green, 2-3'; distinctly aqua, 3-5'; any degree of blue, good water (more than 6'). We laid in the water cooling off and playing with a couple little wrangs who were not the least afraid of us and stayed right by our hands as we picked things off the bottom hoping we would turn up food for them. Deb found more shells (!) on the beach. A couple of other boats came and went, but the original power boat was looking like it was going to spend the night as well (interesting crew: two distinctly older men and two very young women - girls. One man was taking pictures of his girl while she posed for him on the beach in her thong bathing suit) Anyway, just as we were finishing dinner, they left. It was too dark by then (8:00 PM) to move and we are very comfy here anyway, but it is nice to have Honeymoon Harbor to ourselves for the first real anchorage in the Bahamas, after all this is like a second (or third or fourth) honeymoon for us.
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05/25/2009, Anchored in Nixon Harbor, S. Bimini
Monday, May 25. I am beginning to think that the East Coast of Florida doesn't like me and I'm quite sure I don't like it. When we sailed North from Key Biscayne to Ft. Lauderdale the prediction was for 10-15 from the SW (perfect), what we got was 6-25 from the NE (lousy). When we sailed South from Ft. Lauderdale to Key Biscayne the prediction was for 10-15 from the E (perfect) what we got was 10-25 from the SE (lousy). So today we are planning to cross the Gulf Stream and predictions are for flat seas and no wind - motor all the way, boring but easy. We get up @ 5:00 AM (yes, Deb, 5:00 still comes twice a day) to find lightening to the SE (our projected course) and 10-15 kt winds. We waited until 6:00 for more light and for the storms to move further W and headed out. By the time we made it out the channel toward Fowey Rocks, we had 15-23 kts of wind from the SE. Too tight to sail, but with one reef we could motor sail with just the main. Slowly the wind faded and shifted S so that by the time we were 10 nm off shore, we could raise full sail and turn off the engines - a delightful surprise. This persisted for most of the morning. I had done the navigation exercise and knew that we would need to point 20* S of our desired course to compensate for the Gulf Stream N push, but with the wind, this increased to 30* - really quite amazing to see your COG 30* N of your heading! To add to our delight, I caught a nice 30" dolphin fish (Mahi mahi) which I filleted into two nice meals' worth of meat before releasing the remains. As the day wore on, the wind faded and we ended up motor sailing and then just motoring to get to Bimini. Waves were a whopping 6-18 INCHES! Approaching Bimini we were amazed to see the entire sky lit up a beautiful green. I had seen the color of the water reflected on the bottom of the clouds before, but never filling up the entire sky from sea to clouds - truly amazing. Arriving in Bimini, we motored in to Nixon Harbor on S. Bimini and anchored in 6' of gin clear water. Reminded us both of Turneff atoll in Belize. I collected all our ship's papers and embarked on what turned out to be a 3+ hour ordeal of checking in. First the barmaid at the Beach Club told me I could just go to the airport and clear in there. After taking a taxi out to the airport, they said, "No" I needed to get the proper paper work first from the Bimini Sands marina and I also had to bring the original documentation papers, not a copy. So back to Bimini Sands to get the forms, then back to the boat to fill them out and get the original documentation paper. Then back to the airport where for only $300 we were finally officially cleared into the country. Upon returning to the boat, I collapsed into the water and then revived, made Gin & Tonics to celebrate our arrival. Mahi mahi in beer batter for dinner and all is well with the world!
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05/22/2009, Anchored in Lake Sylvia, Ft. Lauderdale
Well, we are ready to begin the next adventure. We left Camcy's dock this afternoon on mid-tide rising, no problems. Motored to Lake Sylvia and anchored so as to be able to leave early in the AM. Tomorrow we will sail South, down the coast of Florida to Key Biscayne (this gives us a better angle for heading toward the Bahamas). We will probably wait there a day and then head across the Gulf Stream on Monday to Bimini to clear into the Bahamas. Probably will not have internet again until we reach Panama, with the possible exception of a stop in Nassau and maybe in Jamaica. We will try to update blog at least every few days via SSB. If you need to contact us, use the sailmail address as neither the phone nor the gmail address will get to us.
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04/30/2009, Moored, Sunset Lake, Ft. Lauderdale
Tuesday, April 28. No Name Harbor is a gem. Today is our staging day. We sail up Biscayne Bay to a little place called No Name Harbor that is the perfect jumping off spot for either a Gulf Stream crossing to the Bahamas or, in our case, a trip up the E coast to Ft. Lauderdale. Winds are still 15-20 from E, but we are going mostly N and the Bay is pretty sheltered, so life is good. Double reef, handkerchief worth of jib and we are making 7 kts. smooth as you can ask. Dodge the shoals (very well marked by aids to navigation once you figure out that this is the ICW and Red goes toward the mainland, Green to the ocean, not Cloregs with Red Right Return.) It's only a 13 mile sail so by noon we are approaching No Name Harbor and can see at least a half dozen masts inside. Damn, I'm not sure we will fit. But once inside, it opened up into a very nice big little harbor with plenty of room. A big ass cat (probably 50' or so) had anchored right in the entrance, but we made our way around him without incident, then he glared at us the entire time we were anchoring (well in from of him). In contrast, the boat to our starboard, "Gratitude" was friendly as could be. As we were dropping back on the anchor, I called out to him commenting on what a nice place this was and he said yes, and holding was good and we had the perfect spot. We then talked about going to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow. Seems that half the anchorage is going. Later we took dink over to Gratitude and chatted for a while about options for going N, living on our boats, kids, etc. We went ashore and walked a Nature Trail down to the light house (closed on Tuesday) and back, stopping to wade in the Atlantic on what is supposed to be one of the prettiest beaches in Florida. Probably about 3 miles total. It felt good to stretch our legs, but Deb had had enough by the time we got back. As I was taking the trash to the bin with dink, I helped a young couple in a small sail boat tie up tot he sea wall. They were headed to Ft. Lauderdale too. There was a restaurant on shore, but the menu was pretty boring, so we grilled a T-bone on the boat instead. Very peaceful night.
Wednesday, April 29. A day of contrasts. We got up early (well, 7:00) but both Smooch and Gratitude has already left. We made coffee and got under way before 8:00 which is what we planned. Motor sailed out the channel until we could turn N and sail. It was quite choppy going out the channel as it was shallow (7-10'- some channel!), but once we got out and depths dropped to 100', life got better. Unfortunately, Deb had awakened with lower GI problems and then got sea-sick from having to run down to the head during the trip out the channel. The bands helped some, but she finally had to take some Bonine. The wind was still 15-20, not the 10-15 predicted, and were coming from just N of E, not SE. End result, we were beating into strong winds struggling to make our way point off Government Cut and avoid the Spoils area just S of it. There were so many ships going in and out of Miami that I thought the AIS would have a seizure. It beeped for a "Dangerous Target" about every 2 minutes. In reality it was pretty easy. I slowed down just a bit to avoid one tanker, but other than that, nothing got in our way. Once by Government Cut, we were able to fall off another 20* and that helped immensely, both on speed and comfort. Now, of course, the wind decided to drop to 10 or less and fall back to SW, so shake out the reefs and make way under full sail. Then a cloud passes and winds jump to 20+ and back to NE. And the cloud passes and the wind drops and veers SE again. Oh yeah, and it rains. It one point while fighting the wind shift to NE, we pass moderately close to a fishing boat. I actually changed course slightly to fall to his lee so we wouldn't slide into him if the wind changed. All of a sudden he is waiving his arms yelling and swearing at me. I'm at least 100 yards off his beam and don't cut back to endanger any trolling lines, so I cannot figure out what his problem is. It turns out that down here they fish with a kite flying several 100 ft in the air and then a line back down to the sea with an artificial fish on it. Their kite was so far to leeward of their boat that my mast caught it and broke the line leaving the line wrapped around our boat and the fish flying from our upper spreader. How was I to know? We saw several more boats with similar rigs and I did my best to pass to windward or far far to leeward watching their kites. As we approached Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale) the AIS again went into spasm. This time I really did have to turn of the alarm feature as I could not sail and hit the "Acknowledge" button as often as it needed. Since the entrance is due W (straight down wind) and in deference to the number of big ships, we dropped sail and motored into the harbor, pausing briefly to let one of the "big guys" go first. Once in the port, we turned N up the Strantham River and waited for the 17th Street bridge to open @ 1:00 (every half hour). We were lucky and only had to wait 10 minutes. Then it was follow the channel markers up the ICW and into Lake Sylvia. "Lake Sylvia" is this man made "lake" in the middle of the city. It is an approved anchorage where it is "free and legal to anchor for one night only." It is surrounded by single family dwellings like the mansions in Naples. There is no shore access or dinghy dock, but you can drop the hook for the night. Go figure. Anyway, it was totally calm and peaceful place to spend the night. The water was calm enough that even though the wind was still blowing a bit, I went up the mast to free our flying fish and its attendant line. We called Ms. Courten and verified that all was set for our arrival tomorrow.
Thursday, April 29. . We had agreed to be at Ms. Courten's dock @ 10:00. That put us just 2 hours off low tide. The chart shows a 4' section going into the canal that leads to her dock and also a 3' area just beyond the entrance to Sunset Lake (another Lake Sylvia type construction, but with NO allowed anchoring). Her house is on the corner and the dock is just around the corner from the canal into the lake. I will have to cut the corner very tight to avoid going aground. As we weighed anchor in Lake Sylvia, it was caught in a chain again (like in Key West). This time it didn't seem as tight and we actually got the anchor 90% of the way up and then poked at the other chain until it fell off. Much easier than last time - did we learn from last time or we just luckier? Probably luckier. The whole distance to Sunset Lake is only about a mile and all of it "No wake" zone, so we motor casually down, turn into what I think is the right canal stopping to ask someone working on a boat (50+' motor yacht) and he has no idea, but it looks right and we go ahead. A call to Ms. Courten confirms this is the right canal and she can see us coming. "You have to make a wide swing to come onto my dock," she says - the exact opposite of what I expected. OK, it is her dock, she should know. I swing wide, motoring to control the boat against the opposing wind. Kerchunk! This isn't mud, this is marl and we are hard aground. Now she says, "You have to come in this way (waving her arm parallel to the dock), and line up on that tree over there." Yeah, a tight corner would have been just right. Oh well, we bumped lightly and the tide is rising, so we wait. In about 20 minutes we float free and motor in to the dock. The dock is only ~20' long (not the 100' she had advertised, that dock is on the canal side and has a big power boat and two small sailboats on it) At first I am put off, but we tie up and with some maneuvering and plenty of lines and fenders we seem secure. The big problem is the only way off is over the lifelines midship. No problem for me, but NOT easy for Deb. Oh well, we are leaving the boat here, not living on it so it will only be a hassle a few times. And Ms. Courten turns out to be such a gem that it over powers any inconveniences. She tells us her life story, insists we use her laundry instead of going to a laundromat, and then takes us to refill the propane and get groceries. Tomorrow she will drive us to the airport and when we return she will either take us our give us her car to go provisioning. What more could you ask? We leave tomorrow to fly back to NH for ~3 weeks to open the house and get it back on the market, celebrate my and my Dad's birthdays, get all our medical and dental checkups, and then attend Shary's graduation from Veterinary School before heading back to the boat, so this will be the last entry for a while.
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